Project Description

The Energy City Foundation encouraged the restoration of the Control Centre of the Compostilla I Power Plant, located on the outskirts of Ponferrada, in order to set up its own administrative headquarters there.

The proposal submitted by Impulso, winner of the bidding process, opened with a comprehensive historical analysis, which was the basis for a proposal to restore the original arguments of the project, leading to a highly original architectural proposal for a building with major building and structural restrictions. The project has barely suffered any budget deviation for the building’s construction, a particularly remarkable fact considering that it uses recycled materials, such as cellulose-based insulation and Duralmond panels made from a composite of recycled almond shells. Furthermore, the project makes use of high value-added power generation and energy management technologies with biomass boilers, Cryogel tanks for overnight cold storage and solar cooling, among others.

The building has six floors (including the ground floor), two of which (the first and fifth floors) were added to the original building from the 1940s. The submitted project includes the demolition of the fifth floor and its replacement with a central atrium that receives light from above through new skylights in the roof. This is a multi-purpose space that can be used for institutional or cocktail receptions and showing films at the same time, thanks to a step that provides seating for the public and also gives the two top floors of the building spatial continuity.

An external service lift, two other lifts (one of them replaces the existing lift and is adapted) and an external fire escape staircase have been added to the building. These installations are hidden from the entrance, on the north façade, which has been suitably adapted to serve the whole building.

The building that houses the installations looks like a buried concrete cube protected by a transparent glass cover, which has a didactic purpose as it makes it easier to explain the processes of generating and distributing energy by facilities of great technological significance.

Services

• Preparation of the project’s basic outline and implementation plan
• Preparation of the Health and Safety Study
• Site supervision
• On-site health and safety coordination

Project
Restoration of the Control Centre of the Compostilla I Power Plant

Promoter
Energy City Foundation, CIUDEN

Location
Compostilla, Ponferrada. León

Project end date
February 2007

Work end date
October 2008

Total built area
4.540.51 m².